Berlin, Germany, 1975: A simple task like changing a lightbulb, normally the subject of jokes about how many people are required to do so, takes on a serious, sinister meaning when it’s being done in the “no-man’s land” on the Communist side of the Berlin Wall.

Guards like this one killed at least 133 people trying to flee to the West during the wall’s existence from 1961 to 1989.

VoPo was the nickname used for the East German Volkspolizei, the East German police force.

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